15 more smoke-free parks to be added in Taoyuan County on New Year’s Day
桃園縣無菸公園 明年元旦起再添十五座

A smoke-free park is pictured in Chiayi County on Sept. 10.這張九月十日攝於嘉義縣是無菸公園。

Photo: Yu Hsueh-lan, Liberty Times照片：自由時報記者余雪蘭

Smokers beware. The Taoyuan County Government will be designating 15 more public parks as smoke-free environments on New Year’s Day, eventually making for a total of 68 smoke-free parks in the county. In accordance with the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act, violators caught smoking in these parks could receive fines of between NT$2,000 and NT$10,000. The Taiwan Smokers’ Helpline (0800-636363) is available for people who would like to quit smoking, or you can contact smoking cessation clinics at any hospital.

According to statistics from the Taoyuan County Government Public Health Bureau, approximately 300,000 people in Taoyuan County are smokers, or around 10 percent of the county’s total population. The bureau has set up 53 smoke-free public parks since it started promoting them two years ago. During this time, more than 5,000 people have been issued warnings not to smoke at the parks and more than 200,000 cigarette butts have been picked up. There is no record of anyone being fined, however, so people are generally under the impression that smoke-free parks are only for show and would rather see the government increase patrol staff to better enforce fines against violators.

TODAY’S WORDS
今日單字

1. violator n.

違背者；褻瀆者；侵犯者 (wei2 bei4 zhe3; xie4 du2 zhe3; qin1 fan4 zhe3)

例: Some view North Korea as one of the world’s worst violators of human rights.

(有些人認為北韓是全世界最壞的人權侵犯者之一。)

2. leisure n.

閒暇；空暇時間；悠閒 (xian2 xia2; kong1 xia2 shi2 jian1; you1 xian2)

例: Sally doesn’t have much time for leisure these days.

(莎莉最近完全沒有空暇時間。)

3. periodically adv.

週期性地；定期地；偶爾 (zhou1 qi2 xing4 de5; ding4 qi2 de5; ou2 er3)

例: All legislation should be reviewed periodically.

(所有立法應該定期的審查。)

Chiang Yu-chin, chief of the bureau’s health promotion section, says that parks are supposed to be recreational areas providing people with a place to get some fresh air. People go to parks for leisure and children play there, Chiang says, adding that promoting smoke-free parks can help people avoid secondhand smoke and reduce the amount of cigarette butts polluting the environment. Volunteers patrol the parks every day and issue warnings to people who are caught smoking in the parks. Police also periodically patrol the parks. If you see someone violating the smoking ban at the parks, you can report them to the bureau, Chiang says.